That seemingly far-off dream of a la carte cable consumption may be more imminent than you realize. Cablevision has announced its plans to sue Viacom for "illegally forcing purchase of programming services." In other words, they want to break up the bundle.

DirecTV and Viacom were in something of a spat, unable to reach a broadcast agreement. This resulted in channels such as MTV and Comedy Central disappearing from DirecTV's satellite beam. However, the two companies worked things out with a long term agreement, and all is well again.

When Time Warner first released their streaming iPad app last year, Viacom freaked out and demanded that their shows and channels be removed from the app. After some bickering and court battles, the NY Times says that an agreement has been reached, and both sides appear to be OK with it.

Like Netflix and Hulu before it, Amazon has inked a deal with Viacom to bring TV shows from all its networks (MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, BET, Spike, etc.) to the Prime streaming service. Beavis and Butthead marathon, anyone?

There have long been rumors that Amazon wants to usurp Netflix as the video streaming service of choice. But new reports suggest that Amazon is about to announce a tie-in with Viacom that could make that a reality.

Yet another lawsuit—this time between Viacom and Cablevision—was started today. Reuters reports that the alleged culprit, Cablevision, is being accused of "unauthorized streaming of [Viacom's] programming on devices such as Apple Inc's iPad."

Right on the heels of the Time Warner/Viacom debacle, Cablevision's live TV-streaming app has now gotten caught in the crosshairs too. Viacom claims that the Cablevision iPad app does not honor distribution agreements, and they've asked the cable company to remove content from their iPad app. Meanwhile, Cablevision…

News Corp, Viacom and Discovery issued to formal complaints to Time Warner this week, demanding the cable provider remove any of the trio's channels (MTV, FX, Discovery, etc.) from their iPad app, which streams live television to cable subscribers while they're at home. Today, Time Warner caved and removed the channels

Viacom, following every major network, has added its online content to the Google TV blacklist, blocking users from viewing Comedy Central, MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon shows online (although it appears short clips are still allowed). [GTV Hub via SlashGear]

Netflix has reached an agreement with Epix to include films from Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM Studios as part of its Watch Instantly offerings, starting September 1. The films will be available on Netflix only 90 days after their pay TV debuts.

Tragedy! The New York Times is reporting that Viacom is going to pull "The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report," and other Comedy Central properties off of Hulu next week. The reason, as always: money. The bigger question: who's next?

Michael Fricklas is Viacom's general counsel, the company's top lawyer. I can't tell if he actually felt bad when he said the above at a recent meeting with Yale Law students. I kind of feel an evil, dark smile inside.